Russia-+Kailee+Wallace,+Karlee+Wold-+Block+4

Kailee Wallace Karlee Wold Block 4 __**Land of Russia**__ __Plains__ __Mountains__ __Water System__
 * Northern European Plain- Sweeps across western and central Europe into Russia.
 * West Siberian Plain- Worlds largest flatland.
 * Caucasus Mountains- Lies between the Black and Caspian Seas.
 * Ural Mountains- Marks the traditional boundary between Eurpean Russia and Asian Russia.
 * Central Siberian Plateau- Has elevations ranging from 1,600 to 2,300 feet.
 * Russia has the longest continuous coastline of any country in the world.
 * Baltic Sea,Black Sea,Caspian Sea- Coasts located in Russia.
 * Lake Baikal- Lies in southern Siberia, nearly 400 miles long, 40 miles wide.

__**Climate & Vegetation**__ __High-Latitude Regions__ Arctic Circle-(661/2N) Taiga- A boreal forest belt that covers two-fiths of western Russia and extends inton much of Siberia. __Midlatitude Regions__ Moscow- 9 Degrees to 14 Degrees F in January. 66 Degrees to 99 Degrees F in July Russias cold climate played an important role in the defeat of Napoleon 1 in 1812 and of German forces during World War 2. This temperature grassland area has dry summers and long, cold, dry winters with swirling winds and blowing snow. __**Population and Culture**__ __The People__ __Density and Distrubution__ __Language and Religion__ __Education and Health Care__ __Family life and Leisure__
 * __Tundra-__ Vast, treeless plain-- dominates the landscape.
 * __Subarctic__
 * __Humid Continental__
 * __War and Winter__
 * __Steppe__
 * 80 % of the population is ethnic Russian
 * The Slavs, Caucasian, Turkic Peoples
 * 75 % of all Russians live in western Russia, because the rich soil, water ways, and a milder climate than in eastern Russia
 * Only 25 % of Russia’s population lives in Siberia
 * More than 100 languages are spoken in Russia today, but Russian is the official language
 * Atheism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism are major religions in Russia
 * Today students have a choice of different types of schools, but the countries unstable economy has limited school budgets
 * Russia is experiencing a demographic declining as the quality and availability of health care has worsened
 * Most family live in large apartment blocks
 * The apartments are usually very small
 * The apartments have a bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom

__**Economy**__ __Changing Economies__ __The soviet command economy__ Market Economy __Economic Activitiy__ Agriculture- Soviet-era farms were organized into state-controlled kolkozes and sovkhozes. Industry- Russian industry has been transformed since the early 1990s. __Transportation and Communications__ __Transporting goods__ __Trade and Interdependence__ __Trade__
 * The government owned banks, factories, farms, mines and transportation systems.
 * In which businesses are privately owned.
 * Privatization- a change to private ownership—of state-owned companies.
 * Russia’s transportation systems must move resources great distances to reach consumers.
 * A major highway system links Moscow with other major cities, but many roads are in poor repair.
 * Mass Communications
 * During the Soviet era, the state owned and controlled all mass communications systems.
 * State agencies reviewed all print and broadcast materials to make sure they contained no criticism of the government.
 * Russia is a major source of energy and fuels, which account for over 53 percent of its exports.
 * The European Union, other former Soviet republics.

__International Relations__ __Kievan Rus__ __The Rise of Russia__ __Romanov Czars and the Empire__ __The Russian Revolution__ __The Soviet Era__ __A Superpower__ __The Fall of the Soviet Union__ __A New Russia__
 * Russia works to maintain its role in wolrd affairs.
 * It benefits from occupying the former Soviet Union’s seat in the United Nations Security Council.
 * __History and Government__**
 * During the 800’s Scandinavian warrior called the Varangians settles among the Slavs living by the Dnieper and Volga Rivers
 * The Varangians had adopted the Slav language and many Slav customs within a century
 * Moscow is a settlement that was Slavs who fled to Mongol and settled along the Moskva River
 * In 1547 Ivan the Great’s grandson, Ivan the fourth, became Russia’s first crowned czar
 * A new capital St. Petersburg was carved out of the wilderness along the Gulf of Finland
 * The new capital provided(s) access to the Baltic Sea
 * Non-Russian peoples also face prejudice when the government introduced the policy of Russification
 * Many Russian workers and thinkers turn to socialism
 * The weak representative governments established in 1917 made it easy for the Bolsheviks to seize control
 * The Bolsheviks won the civil war in 1992, and established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the Soviet Union
 * The Soviet Union attained superpower status after World War two
 * The next four decades saw the Soviet Union and the United Stated engaged in the Cold War, the struggle was between the communists and capitalists
 * The union’s weakening economy, along with the great discrepancies between the workers’ wages and the privileges their leaders enjoyed
 * In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev assumed power in the Soviet Union
 * The new Russia began moving from a command economy to a market economy
 * Putin helped stabilize the economy by instituting reforms in labor, banking, and private property

__**Global Issues**__ Russia has about 5 percent of the world's known oil reserves and more than 20 percent of the known natural gas reserves. Forests are often cut down to tap into the oil fields and transport the oil and natural gas.
 * __A Moral Issue__

Russia's oil fields are located far from Russia's population centers and other countries where the products can be sold. The United States, Western Europe, China, and Japan look to Russia to supply their growing energy need.
 * __An Economic Dilemma__
 * __A Political Problem__